Help Anne rebuild her life after a devastating house fire

You may have seen the news reports over the last couple of days, the death of an 80yr man and the house fire that destroyed their family home.

Anne and Ted Grantham have been very active within their community. They have given of their time, to their local churches and Ted (Dad) was an amazingly gentle man, he was a greatly intelligent man and very interested in Greek, Hebrew and Latin as well as philosophical matters. He was also a composer and arranger of music who possessed great musical talent, he played the piano and pipe organ at St Christophorus church, Croydon and Hunter Baillie at Annandale. He sang bass at St Mary’s singers at the St Mary’s Cathedral. He played the Carillon for 63 years at Sydney University, he was the longest serving carillonist. He also played the Canberra Carillon. Ted was also an avid train enthusiast. Dad was a music and mathematics teacher, a loving husband and father to 6 children, 18 grandchildren, 6 great grandchildren and one on the way.

Anne and Ted were married for 55 years, and they were companions and best friends, always encouraging each other, showing solidarity, generosity and grace. He will be missed by many.

From the very beginning of their life together, they were always showing ways that defined their values. They were/are family orientated and wanted to give to others less fortunate than themselves. One of the ways that these values were shown was to foster children short term. All while raising six young children of their own. In fact, I was their first foster child, and they adopted me. They also provided respite to parents of several children with intellectual disabilities, long before there was NDIS to assist. These children were welcomed into our home on weekends, and it raised a level of awareness to us as children the value of caring and inclusion.

Anne now finds herself without Ted, her very much loved husband and our father as he recently passed away in a devastating house fire that has destroyed the entire house. Anne (mum) is now homeless.

Unfortunately, there is a mortgage over her home that has been destroyed. Mum will need to replace a whole house of furniture. All her belongings and precious memories have been destroyed.

While the community has been wonderful in giving immediate assistance, her long term financial circumstances are unsure. So, we are trying to raise money for her so that she can have some level of permanent housing while working out what she can do to rebuild her future.

Written by Anne & Ted’s loving daughter.

With permission from Anne & the Grantham family I am creating this go fund me page. All funds raised will be directly donated to Anne.